Fu Mingtian wins S’pore’s first SEA Games women’s badminton gold
REPORTING FROM JAKARTA
Singapore’s Fu Mingtian has won the nation’s first ever gold medal in the SEA Games badminton women’s singles.
After losing to Indonesia’s Adriyanti Firdasar 14-21 in the first set, Fu rebounded with a vengeance, leading strongly throughout the game to finish 21-12.
This left the pair with an all-or-nothing third round as they took turns to score points against each other before it came down to Fu to earn the last all important point, sealing the score — and the gold — at 22-20.
"I have been spending a lot of time on improving myself as a badminton player," said Fu. "I am more steady now, and focus more on development and growth as a player instead of being concerned about outcomes and results.”
Team Singapore contingent Chef de Mission Tan Eng Liang, who was present for the heart-stopping final match, praised Fu’s perseverance and resilience.
“She has excellent fighting spirit and mental strength. She really deserves the gold medal,” he said.
In sailing, Singapore’s sailors also swept four gold, one silver and three bronze medals on Saturday as they closed in on their previous achievement of four gold, six silvers and three bronzes in the 2007 Games in Thailand, the last time sailing was offered.
The men’s and women’s 470 pairs came in a comfortable first place at the Ancol Marina after dominating almost all 10 races, with the duo of Dawn Liu and Sara Tan finishing first in all their races, and second in one.
The first-time pairing of Terence Koh and Russell Kan finished four races first, and another four second, still producing the best net score and taking home the gold.
“A lead is good, but we cannot get too comfortable,” said Tan, who alongside her 470 teammates is gunning for a spot in the London 2012 Olympic Games. “We had a little bit of pressure on us, but that is positive pressure. It helped us to make smarter decisions and take risk management into consideration,” she added.
SEA Games debutantes Elisa Yukie Yokoyama and Victoria Chan, competing in the Optimist Open and Laser Radial categories respectively, both clinched Singapore’s third and fourth golds for sailing.
14-year-old Yukie secured her victory early on, coming in first for all her races except one, while Chan, 21, was off to a poor start initially but bounced back to clinch the gold, finishing first and second in all the rest of her races.
Said Chan, “I told myself I had to stay focused and decided to fight my way back… (my performance) really shows the importance of perseverance.”
The 2006 World Laser Radial champion is also gunning for a spot at next year’s Olympics, while Yukie will continue to prepare for the IODA World Sailing Championship in New Zealand at the end of next month.
Winning the sole silver is windsurfer Audrey Yong, in the Women’s RSX category, while RSX teammate Leonard Ong and Women’s Mistral windsurfer Amanda Ng clinched bronze medals. Also winning a bronze is Terence Choo, in the Men’s Laser Radial class.
Other sports whose athletes have won medals for Singapore today include synchronised swimming (one silver, one bronze), Wushu (one bronze), Judo (one bronze) and Billiards (one silver).
